07/21/2018
Have you been waiting patiently on the Lord? If you say yes, then let me ask this: have you done so without muttering and discontent? It is one thing to wait patiently and in great expectation on God, but it is quite a different thing to wait because that is your only recourse... and to do so with discontent, or complaints on your lips. Waiting brings honor to the Father, and a new song to us.
“I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry.
He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord.”
Psalms 40:1, 3 ESV
Waiting often comes wrapped in suffering. I have found that the things I want or need the most typically involve some degree of pain, and when the Lord is involved this is true as well. We don’t typically take the small everyday things that we can easily do for ourselves to God, but instead we ask Him to look over us as we go about them. However, when we face things that are stretching us, are beyond our ability, or are extremely painful, this is when we ask God to provide, and it is in these things that we tend to become the most impatient.
I recall working as a painting contractor, pumping gas at a service station, doing odd jobs, and going to school... all at the same time. As if that weren’t enough I was also rapidly approaching my wedding day. I worried about having a place for my wife and me to live, putting food on the table, finding a good job, and any number of other pressing issues. I would pray that the Lord would provide, but I must confess that there were nights when, try as I might, I would fall asleep from exhaustion in mid prayer. As deadlines approached such as the time for rent payments, job commitments, or school assignments, I would pray more fervently, and the temptation to doubt God’s provision would mount. Have you been there? Can you feel your own pain and suffering as you read this?
While I was reading Andrew Murray today he said something that not only convicted me for my seasons of impatience, but lifted me up as I remembered those times I waited joyfully on Him to act. It brought to mind the days of suffering as I waited on His provision. Here is an excerpt from Murray’s text...
“In waiting on God, it is important that we submit not because we are forced to, but because we want to be in the hands of our blessed Father. Patience becomes our highest blessing and our highest grace. It honors God and gives Him time to work His will in us.” - Andrew Murray
Doing something because we love God takes the hard things and makes them bearable, and having patience is made possible when we trust in whatever it is on which we wait (and it doesn’t hurt to occasionally see a hint of progress along the way either). Waiting on God takes trust and faith in His desire to provide for us. He isn’t like the humans that we wait on... we can’t call Him up and get a status on whatever we are expecting, but also unlike humans, He never fails, is always good, and has a perfect plan for us.
So why is it that we become impatient, and frustrated? Why is it that we let Satan steal our trust from us and undermine our faith? Why is it that we mutter to ourselves that God really doesn’t love us, or perhaps voice our doubts in His existence? Have you been here as well?
The fact is... we have a timetable. Our lives are lived, and governed, within the parameters of time. We see our needs and desires bound by seconds, minutes, hours, and days. Our favorite phrase is “What time is it?” God sees us in an entirely different light, and the things that we find so important and necessary to complete today, or in our lifetimes might not be as dire or immediate to Him. King David wanted to build a temple to God; if you could go back in time and speak to him, I am certain he would tell you it was his number one priority! Yet God saw it differently and gave that privilege to David’s son Solomon. What God wanted from David was trust and love... and in David’s patient waiting God said that he was a man after His own heart.
God loved David, and He loves us. We get our greatest examples of love from God Himself, but we get our steadfastness and patience from Jesus. We learn to tarry for days while our good friend Lazarus is dying, and we pray over and over again in the Garden of Gethsemane, but through His examples we never lose faith or trust in God’s will. We find in Him that our will must become subservient to God’s
“May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.”
2 Thessalonians 3:5 ESV
So we pray, we wait, we suffer, and all the while we are faithful, and trust in the goodness of God’s will. When we cease to do this we overextend ourselves in debt... financially, emotionally, and spiritually. When we try to make things happen outside of God’s will because of our own self-imposed timetable , or selfishness, it is harmful in so many ways. Waiting on God can end in us receiving that thing which we have asked Him for, or it might end in God revealing to us (as He did David, Moses, and Jesus) that our will must become subservient to His. God didn’t want Moses to enter the promised land, He didn’t want David to build a temple to Him, and He didn’t want His Son Jesus to continue preaching and teaching. What God wanted in each of these examples was Love, obedience, and His will to be done.
So do you trust unabashedly in the Lord as you wait? Are you prepared to hear the YES and the NO with equal acceptance, and obedience? Are you prepared to trust in Him, and place your will in subjugation to His? If you are then He won’t just put a song in your mouth... he will put a new song there.
Prayer:
Father, I thank you for the patience you have given me through Jesus Christ, and I thank you for all of the examples of obedience I find in your Word. I thank you Lord God as I read of those you chose, and who faithfully placed your will above their own, then trusted enough in you to remain obedient to that will. Holy Father, I know that your will for me is good, and that if I remain within it, the waiting on you will always end in goodness. You tell me this in your Word Merciful Father as it says in Romans 8:28 “that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” Call me Gracious Father, for I love you with all my mind, heart, and soul, and seek to wait on you and obey you in patience, and honor. Let my waiting be rewarded with your glory, and my obedience with your great pleasure. Holy, Holy, Holy are you my God in whom every wait brings good fruit.
“I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope; my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning.”
Psalms 130:5-6 ESV
Rich Forbes